The Tower

The base of the tower is one of the oldest parts of the church. Stand in the tower room and look up to the right, diagonally from the top of the ten commandments board, and you will see a Celtic carved stone. This was once probably part of a Saxon cross or tombstone. There is a ring of 8 bells in the tower, the oldest bell is from 1500 and the youngest from 1979. They are rung regularly to call people to church services. The clock mechanism was given by Francis Howard Taylor of Middlewood Hall in April 1898 and its winding was electrified in 1977.

Transcribers needed

We are starting on an exciting new project to create a Burial Ground Management System with the help of Atlantic Geomatics Ltd. Atlantic Geomatics have already created an accurate plan of our churchyard including all headstones and trees. We have now photographed all our burial registers and uploaded them onto the new system. The next action is to transcribe these burial registers into the system so that details can then be matched up headstones and a search facility created. Further enhancements would then follow.

So....we are now need volunteers to transcribe the burial registers. We already have a number of willing volunteers but can always use more. The work can be done anywhere and by anyone so long as they have access to the internet and the ability to type in details. The photographs of the burial register come up on screen together with the boxes to be completed for transcribing. Even if you are reading this in Australia you can still join in.